


You Perceive He Stirs

by Astrodynamicist



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Flash Fiction, Gen, Jossed, POV Second Person, Science Bros
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-09
Updated: 2013-07-06
Packaged: 2017-12-07 18:56:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/751897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astrodynamicist/pseuds/Astrodynamicist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Coulson had lived. No one told the Avengers. In time, each found out anyway. These are their reactions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Tony Stark

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to my betas IngloriousHeist and TrillianAristophane!

_The first of the Avengers to find out Coulson lived was Tony Stark...._

You are having a good afternoon. A glorious one, even. The Tower needs extensive repairs, one suit of armor is basically scrap now, and nearly suffocating in space and then falling out of the sky has done your health no favors. But this afternoon? Wonderful. Fan-fucking-tastic. Pepper has been giving you hero sex like you've never had before.

You're Iron Man. You've had all _sorts_ of hero sex.

At the moment, Pepper is dozing, snuggled up alongside you, her head resting on your chest. You have an arm wrapped around her shoulders, and you're almost asleep, too. But then your phone rings.

And rings.

And _rings_.

"Tony...? You gonna get that?" she murmurs.

You grunt and reach over to the nightstand to grab the paper-thin device. Apparently Fury is calling you. Somehow you manage to dig _deep_ and find it in yourself to give zero fucks about this, and turn off the phone.

Literally not two minutes later he is banging on your front door. " _Stark!_ "

You sit bolt upright, dragging Pepper up with you. "How the hell did he...?!" You growl and push yourself out of bed. "Sweaty workmen are bad enough, but I draw the line at SHIELD directors."

"This is not my fault," says Pepper. As you leave, she yells after you, "Tony, pants!"

"Nope." You stride out to the living room. "Jarvis!"

"I'm sorry, sir. My security protocols have been breached."

The lock mechanisms click and a very aggravated Nick Fury walks into the room. "Why can't you just answer your damn phone?" He looks you up and down. Your pantslessness does not impress him. "And why are you naked?"

"I was kinda in the middle of something." He raises his eyebrows. "With Pepper. We were canoodling. You've just interrupted a perfectly good canoodle-"

"I do not care about your sex life, Mr. Stark. I'm here on SHIELD business."

"Well, I don't care about SHIELD business. I'm here for my sex life."

He glares at you. "This is serious, Stark."

"Can't it wait?"

"Do I look like it can wait?"

You heave an exaggerated sigh. " _Fiiine_. What do you want?"

Fury brushes past you and parks himself on your couch. "We need some specialized tech from you."

"I'm not giving you the Iron Man suit," you say quickly.

"That's not what I'm asking for."

"Good." You try to keep the relief out of your voice. Though staring down Congressional committees for your armor has become practically routine, arguing about it with Fury, naked, on your day off, after going to war and then nearly _dying_ _in_ _space_ \- far away, _bad guy-filled_ space - would be more than you feel like dealing with today. Also Fury ruined the afterglow. Fuck that guy. You cross your arms like an obstinate child and add, "Because you can't have it."

He rolls his eye. "We need some biomedical tech - implants for some severely wounded agents."

"There are all sorts of groups working on stuff like that. _You_ probably have groups working on that. Why me?"

"Our needs are somewhat specialized. We need the most advanced robotics in the world, and you have them."

"Hm. Stroking my ego - always a good start. But I'm not convinced. What _exactly_ do you need?"

Fury reaches into an inner pocket of his coat and pulls out a jump drive which he tosses to you. You catch it and carry it over to a computer where you plug it in. Pages of data pop up on the half dozen screens you have hanging on the wall - injury diagrams and health stats and specifications for prosthetics. One sweep over it, and you realize that this is the information for one person, despite the way it's cut up to look like a dozen's. A second sweep and you see what they're really asking you for, buried among the specs for robotic limbs and computerized eyes - the things they really want, the things these documents keep coming back to, are replacement nerves and a half dozen different organs. In the back of your mind, you feel the pieces start to click together. After a third and final sweep, you're sure.

"You son of a bitch." The words come out soft, you're so coldly furious.

"Excuse me?" He sounds annoyed. Like you're just casually bantering with him.

"He's alive." You turn to face Fury. "Coulson."

You both stare at each other, daring the other to blink first. He's calculating his response, you know he is. And at the end of that long, tense moment he responds, very simply:

"Yes."


	2. Bruce Banner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, huge thanks to my betas, IngloriousHeist and TrillianAristophane!

_The second of the Avengers to find out Coulson lived was Bruce Banner..._

You were sleeping. You were sleeping, and dreaming of something lovely and interesting. It may have involved elephants. You can't remember. The dream has been forced out of your mind because now your phone is ringing because _somebody_ has decided that calling you at this absurd hour of the night is a reasonable thing to do. You think you can guess who the caller is. Rubbing your eyes, you grab your phone to find that your guess was right. You also reluctantly note that the time is 4:13 AM.

Beside you, Betty groans. "Bruce...? Who's calling you?" she murmurs. "It's the middle of the night."

"It's Tony."

"Why is he calling now?"

"It's Tony." You tap the button to answer the call. " _What?_ "

"Bruce, _Coulson's alive_."

Coulson? Coulson... oh! that SHIELD agent Loki stabbed. "That's great, Tony." Why did Tony call you at four in the damn morning to tell you this?

"Fury lied to us! I don't know why I'm surprised, but that was really fucking low, even for him. All this time, I thought Coulson _died_ \- and Rogers, you never saw his face when Fury showed us those cards, he didn't deserve that shit, and now how am I supposed to tell him-" Ah. That's why.

Tony just keeps going and going. You sigh. Deeply. Covering the receiver, you whisper to Betty, "This might take a while," and slide out of bed.

You and Betty are supposed to be on vacation right now - a romantic getaway which has gotten you away for five whole hours, not including travel time. The hotel room has a little balcony, and so, not wanting to disturb Betty further, you decide to take advantage of it. You brush off one of the chairs and settle down at its little table.

"- which of course I'm going to help with because Coulson's a good guy. But really, how fucking stupid does Fury think I am, trying to hide that - it wasn't even clever! He wasn't even fucking trying! He must have wanted me to know and was just taunting me. Argh, I hate that I'm helping him. _Hate_ it, and-"

Okay, wait, what?

"Woah, Tony, slow down. I had to relocate, Betty's trying to sleep. What's Fury making you do?"

"Build bio-integrateable robotics for Coulson. He's basically a vegetable right now. Were you not listening to me? I thought you were listening to me." He sounds a little hurt.

"I was trying to, Tony. I had to move - Betty's trying to sleep."

"It's the middle of the afternoon."

"...Not in Australia, it isn't."

"Oh. Is that where Pepper ended up sending you guys?" You resist the urge to slam your head into the table. "So anyway, I'm going to need your help with this thing. I ought to be able to reuse a fair bit of hardware from the Iron Man suits, though I'm not sure I want that where SHIELD can reverse engineer it. The synthetic nerve tissues and organs are gonna be harder to do. Would Betty be willing to help, do you think? Her cellular engineering background would be useful-"

"Tony-"

"-I mean, I could always just read up on the latest in cellular and genetic engineering, but sometimes having another expert to bounce ideas off of is a good thing, you know?"

" _Tony!_ "

"...Yeah?"

"We're on vacation, Tony. A vacation which _you_ wanted us to go on."

"Do you mind coming home early? This is kind of important." You resist the urge to slam the table into your head. "I mean, I can manage if you don't. It's just that the life and livelihood of this man is kind of hanging in the balance here."

"I _want to help_. We just-"

"You'd rather work with Betty without me. You're sick of me. I get it. I see how it is."

"Tony..."

"No no no, it's fine. I thought we had something. But maybe I'm overreaching. Overstating our relationship."

You are too tired for this. "Tony, what the actual hell?"

"I mean, technically, I wasn't even supposed to tell you about all this."

"Tony, would you-"

"-And I know you weren't close to Coulson. You barely know the guy. But-"

Oh fuck it. You hang up.

Betty stirs when you re-enter the room. "What did he want?"

"You wanna work on a cyborg project?"


End file.
